2020: A dumpster fire of a year for the social butterflies, the high-risk population, and for mental health everywhere. 2020: Somehow an amazing reading year because I was stuck at home with nothing else to do!
Here’s a recap of my reading statistics, along with commentary, and goals, and favorite authors who are returning with great new novels in 2021. Here’s to the new year!
My library usage went up from 32% to 49% in 2020! I spent about three to six monthly (loosely) on a book-buying ban, meaning that I had to either get something from the library or read off my own shelves. It was hard because, as most bookworms know, buying books and reading books are two separate hobbies. I also read more female authors, 71% to 81% in 2020. I wasn’t consciously doing this, but it tracks with what I’ve been thinking. I’ve been having trouble with male authors. They seem to bore me. I don’t know why this is! I look at the subject and concepts of books written by men and my eyes start to close… However, Brandon Sanderson has been catching my eye with all of the buzz surrounding his new books. I also think that female authors received a lot more marketing money, and the majority of my reader friends are women who read women. I read 20% of books by POC (people of color) authors, and didn’t even track this in 2019, so we will call that a win! The majority of those books were by Black authors, so in 2021 I am going to try to read more by authors of Asian and South American descent.
As far as ‘format’ statistics, we had 45% in print in 2019, which went down to 37% in 2020 (corresponding to e-book percentages increasing from 38% to 49%). I attribute the majority of this to my lack of being able to browse the library for over half the year. Thanks, Corona! (Is that the new Thanks, Obama! ? Let me know…). My audiobook percentage went down from 17% to 13% in 2020. What’s interesting is that the actual number of audiobooks I read in 2019 and 2020 is the same, sitting at 27 books. I ‘lost’ my commute in 2020 due to the pandemic, and then by moving closer to my job. My driving time is the majority of my audiobook listening, or when I’m alone, which hasn’t been as often this year because my husband was working from home for the majority of 2020 as well.
Shown below is my genre breakdown graph for 2020. Here’s where your friendly data nerd comes out to play: You need to take this graph with a grain of salt when you compare it to my 2019 reading year. Speaking of which, you can go read all about that here! In 2019 I counted ‘YA’ as a separate genre, where in 2020 it was an ‘audience’ statistic. I like the new method much better (Thanks, Kaytee and Currently Reading!). My fiction percentage hovered at the same number, 35% in 2019 to 34% in 2020. General fiction is books like ‘Transcendent Kingdom’ or ‘Hello, Summer’ where there isn’t necessarily a historical or fantasy aspect to it – about every day life and topics, but 9 times of 10 more interesting than my own every day life. When I speak to people about what genres I like to read most, I call this “Contemporary Fiction”. It’s what you see on the bestseller lists and chosen by talk shows and book clubs.
My fantasy reading and sci-fi reading both went up, with fantasy seeing the big jump from 5% in 2019 to 26% in 2020. That’s where I put the caveat, because in 2019 the YA books I was reading were all fantasy novels. Okay, not all of them, but a lot. I also re-read the entire backlog of Cassandra Clare in 2020, which is like 15 books in itself. Totally recommend! I consider Cassie Clare a personal friend, even though she really has no idea who I am. The other thing I contribute to the jump is that I joined / founded an online book club where we mostly read fantasy books. That book club is what decided to read all of Sarah J. Maas’s “Throne of Glass” series this year (8 books, see what I mean?!). Science fiction almost doubled, from 7% to 13% in 2020. I still really really love science fiction and still have a really hard time finding books that I will like in that genre. They all intimidate me! Romance reading held steady at 15%. I’ve found a groove there and can easily pick out the ones I enjoy. I like to read romance as a palate cleanser after a heavy fantasy or science fiction book, and they’re always nice and happy for sad times, which there were a lot of in 2020.
In my 2019 reading year post, I said I was setting a secret goal of 200 books, which I CRUSHED. The other goal was to read my BOTM backlog, which I only sort of did. I made it a point to either read them or ship them out of the house, so I think I only have about 5 or so hanging around here now. They’re all books I plan to read, though, so you can check that box (but maybe also put an asterisk).
In 2021, I am officially setting my reading goal at 100 books. That’s half of what I read this year, and seems nice and reasonable. I want to keep reading new and fun science fiction books, and try to read some more non-fiction as well. The major change you might see if you follow me on Goodreads is that I am re-doing my star rating system, because >80% of books this year were rated 3+ stars. I am going to re-adjust my expectations to use the full five-star system, which means that I might seem harsher and start rating books 1 and 2 stars if they’re just ‘meh. The reason for this is that if I don’t like a book (which is what Goodreads considers 1 star), I DON’T FINISH IT. And I don’t keep track of those, because it’s sad, and then makes me feel like I should give a book another chance (even when I don’t).
Headed into this new year, I wanted to call out these favorite authors who are publishing new books in 2021. I am glad we are leaving 2020 behind, and I look forward to loving everything they’re writing. Thank you, beloved authors, for continuing to do your thing, and let’s hope that 2021 brings even more readers back into libraries and bookstores.
- Angie Thomas
- Jane Harper
- Kristin Hannah
- Neal Shusterman
- Sarah J. Maas
- Sarah Gailey
- Jenny Lee
- Cassandra Clare
- Andy Weir
- Casey McQuiston
- Helen Hoang
SJP Books 